The tragedy of a child falling from a house or apartment window has become all too common, often resulting in severe injury or death of the child. Devices which are known for inhibiting window access have in the past primarily focused on preventing intrusion into the premises from outside, not on preventing a child from falling out of a window. Examples in the prior art of such devices are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,226 to Woodrow, U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,012 to Merklinger et al., U.S. Pat Nos. 4,680,890, 4,837,974, and 4,899,490 to Jokel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,647 to Spialter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,567 to Pierpont et al., U.S. Pat Nos. 5,131,186 and 5,446,996 to Lamont, U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,096 to Hade, U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,302 to Kluge, U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,975 to Zilkha, U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,334 to Badger et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,912 to Wicks, Sr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,805 to Napper, U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,342 to Bowers, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,800 to Daley, Jr. While this collection of prior art is very informative on the general subject of guard devices for windows, the prior art does not specifically address the issues involved in preventing children from falling out of windows.
A number of inventors have attempted to provide various devices which restrain children from falling down stairways, or entering dangerous or unsupervised areas. Such work can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,421 to Castelli, U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,585 to Andrisin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,840 to Knoedler et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,247 to Alam, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,791 to Larson et al. Devices which can guard a range of widths are also known as shown in U.S. Pat Nos. 4,787,174 to Brown, and 4,884,614 to Spurling.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,265 to Turro et al. teaches a safety guard apparatus for installation into the frame of a window. The Turro et al. reference teaches the use of a locking mechanism which fixes the guarding apparatus in place. It may be removed with the use of a key. Such a locking mechanism and removal procedure present a number of safety concerns. First, a key can be lost or not readily available during an emergency such as a fire. Additionally, many persons would simply not have the wherewithal to efficiently find the key, insert it in the guard device and remove the device from a window in a time of emergency, especially where the lives of the adult and a child or children are at risk. Moreover, such a locking mechanism greatly inhibits the ability of emergency personal to gain access to the premises as it is highly unlikely that those personnel will have the key. Therefore, the prior art, including the advancements made by Turro et al., fails to adequately address imperative safety concerns including emergency egress from a building or the need for easy access into a building by emergency personnel.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a child safety device which may be easily installed to guard against a child inadvertently passing through the window. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device which may be mounted on or within window frames of various widths. It is a further object to provide a window guard device which has a structural strength sufficient to withstand bumping, climbing or other activities normally exhibited by pre-school children. It is still a further object to provide a device with appropriate spacing between its members such as to prevent infants and children from being caught between any components of the window guard. Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a passive window guard which may be quickly and easily removed from a window by an adult as needed in a time of emergency whether to provide immediate egress from the building or access by emergency personnel into the premises.